Speaking of Fonts... a question
in [Cobol]
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From: Robin Lee on 25 Sep 2008 16:56 I can't believe I haven't stumbled upon this before, but I'm having some difficulty finding a font setting in Windows to print at 6 LPI (lines per inch). We're converting checks to print on a laser instead of an impact printer. It's pretty standard stuff... three checks per page with 3-1/2 inch spacing from one check image to the next (10-1/2 inches of check face plus a 1/2 inch tear-off at the bottom). I started with 10 point Courier New fixed point font, thinking it would likely come close, but it tends to "creep" down the page with each check. I'm using the standard (as far as I know) Windows print dialog. I've found lots of info online about horizontal spacing but not much on vertical spacing. Can anyone maybe tell me just what is that I've overlooked?
From: Frederico Fonseca on 25 Sep 2008 17:06 On Thu, 25 Sep 2008 16:56:08 -0400, Robin Lee <robinlee(a)news.com> wrote: >I can't believe I haven't stumbled upon this before, but I'm having some difficulty >finding a font setting in Windows to print at 6 LPI (lines per inch). We're >converting checks to print on a laser instead of an impact printer. It's pretty >standard stuff... three checks per page with 3-1/2 inch spacing from one check image >to the next (10-1/2 inches of check face plus a 1/2 inch tear-off at the bottom). > >I started with 10 point Courier New fixed point font, thinking it would likely come >close, but it tends to "creep" down the page with each check. I'm using the standard >(as far as I know) Windows print dialog. I've found lots of info online about >horizontal spacing but not much on vertical spacing. Can anyone maybe tell me just >what is that I've overlooked? It really depends on how you are printing. Are you using a Windows driver, or are you setting the sequences to send to the printer yourself? if the latest, what printer, and what emulation are you trying to use? Some printers will work well in some emulations and others wont. Also you will need to set the printer to send RAW data to the printer instead of trying to convert it. If using a windows driver, then you will need to be using software that does the printing for you, something like Flexus printing, or crystal Reports. These will normally allow you to print in any font, including proportional quite easily. Frederico Fonseca ema il: frederico_fonseca at syssoft-int.com
From: HeyBub on 25 Sep 2008 21:15 Robin Lee wrote: > I can't believe I haven't stumbled upon this before, but I'm having > some difficulty finding a font setting in Windows to print at 6 LPI > (lines per inch). We're converting checks to print on a laser > instead of an impact printer. It's pretty standard stuff... three > checks per page with 3-1/2 inch spacing from one check image to the > next (10-1/2 inches of check face plus a 1/2 inch tear-off at the > bottom). > I started with 10 point Courier New fixed point font, thinking it > would likely come close, but it tends to "creep" down the page with > each check. I'm using the standard (as far as I know) Windows print > dialog. I've found lots of info online about horizontal spacing but > not much on vertical spacing. Can anyone maybe tell me just what is > that I've overlooked? If using a page printer there's bags of settings: Font, weight, stroke, cpi, lpi, margins, tabs, page length, blah-blah-blah. Literally hundreds of possible commands. Moreover, these commands - usually set via a string of control codes - differ for each printer manufacturer and often differ for models within a manufacturer's line. If you're trying to do the printing manually - sending a line at a time - I think you're pretty much screwed.
From: Frederico Fonseca on 26 Sep 2008 03:29 On Thu, 25 Sep 2008 20:15:41 -0500, "HeyBub" <heybub(a)NOSPAMgmail.com> wrote: >Robin Lee wrote: >> I can't believe I haven't stumbled upon this before, but I'm having >> some difficulty finding a setting in Windows to print at 6 LPI >> (lines per inch). We're converting checks to print on a laser >> instead of an impact printer. It's pretty standard stuff... three >> checks per page with 3-1/2 inch spacing from one check image to the >> next (10-1/2 inches of check face plus a 1/2 inch tear-off at the >> bottom). >> I started with 10 point Courier New fixed point font, thinking it >> would likely come close, but it tends to "creep" down the page with >> each check. I'm using the standard (as far as I know) Windows print >> dialog. I've found lots of info online about horizontal spacing but >> not much on vertical spacing. Can anyone maybe tell me just what is >> that I've overlooked? > >If using a page printer there's bags of settings: Font, weight, stroke, cpi, >lpi, margins, tabs, page length, blah-blah-blah. Literally hundreds of >possible commands. > >Moreover, these commands - usually set via a string of control codes - >differ for each printer manufacturer and often differ for models within a >manufacturer's line. > >If you're trying to do the printing manually - sending a line at a time - I >think you're pretty much screwed. > Dont agree. All my old software was doing line per line, and I was able to send all the correct strings to do whatever type of font/CPI/LPI and other setting. These settings would be stored on a Print Driver file created by me, and would be selecteable by the user, either on the time of printing, or on a default per printer. Normally the later. The code below would work in any line printer or laser printer. A typical line of a report on my reporting programs would look like 01 LC-21. 05 L-COND PIC X(8). 05 L-C1 PIC X. 05 L-H1 PIC X(43). 05 L-X1 PIC X. 05 L-H2 PIC X(12). 05 L-X2 PIC X. 05 L-H3 PIC X(5). 05 L-C2 PIC X. 05 L-DCOND PIC X(8). 01 LC-22. 05 L-COND PIC X(8). 05 L-V1 PIC X. 05 PIC X(15) VALUE " ARTIGO". 05 PIC X(28) VALUE " DESCRICAO ". 05 L-V2 PIC X. 05 PIC X(12) VALUE " QUANTIDADE". 05 L-V3 PIC X. 05 PIC X(5) VALUE " UN.". 05 L-V4 PIC X. 05 L-DCOND PIC X(8). 01 LC-23. 05 L-COND PIC X(8). 05 L-L1 PIC X. 05 L-H1 PIC X(43). 05 L-X1 PIC X. 05 L-H2 PIC X(12). 05 L-X2 PIC X. 05 L-H3 PIC X(5). 05 L-R1 PIC X. 05 L-DCOND PIC X(8). The above would print a line of text boxed. line +------------------------------------------+------------+-----+ |Artigo descricao | Quantidade | UN. | +------------------------------------------+------------+-----+ in either CPI I choose to use. CPI was a string configurable on a per printer basis, and that would populate variables L-COND of each line. The sequence to reset it to a default value (10 cpi normally) would then be on L-DCOND. all the variables L-X*, L-L1*, L-H* could also be different per printer. Normally either a +-| or a graphics line (slower to print in line printers but looking better) Variables I could use on any of my documents are NLQ LQ HSD UTILITY SUBSCRI SUPERSC UNDERLI DOUBLE EMPHASI ITALICO FONT DUP.ALT TRI.ALT DUP.LAR 10 CPI 12 CPI 15 CPI 17 CPI 20 CPI ORIENTA P.SENSO L.GRAFI PAGE LE EJECT L.FEED VAR " TOP MAR BOT MAR LEF MAR RIG MAR L.SP. 6 L.SP. 8 L.SP.VA RESET Frederico Fonseca ema il: frederico_fonseca at syssoft-int.com
From: Michael Mattias on 26 Sep 2008 08:39
"Robin Lee" <robinlee(a)news.com> wrote in message news:ueudnb5yWfmgZkbVnZ2dnUVZ_rzinZ2d(a)giganews.com... >I can't believe I haven't stumbled upon this before, but I'm having some >difficulty finding a font setting in Windows to print at 6 LPI (lines per >inch). That's probably because Windows' printing does not print either 'lines' (per inch) or 'characters' (per inch) ; Windows' printing is "page" printing, printing at specific locations on the page, using fonts, which are nothing more than pixel (screen) or dot (printer) patterns which make up numbers, letters and symbols. The page upon which you print is kind of like an Etch-a-Sketch except you CAN pick up the stylus and move it without drawing a line; and under Windows, that an output device is a printer device or a screen device is totally transparent to the application programmer. (FWIW, the application prints to a "device context") . If you stick with monospaced fonts you get a fixed number of characters per horizontal LOGICAL inch (which you can convert to physical inches) (CPI) ; but vertical inches (LPI) must be controlled programmatically by incrementing or decrementing the "Y" coordinate at which you want to print. All that said, once you find a the font settings you like, no one will be able to tell the difference. Someone suggested a "printing utility." That's probably the best idea if you need to get this done lickety-split. But if you want to get into handling your own formatting directly from your Windows' application programs, you need first be aware of this fundamental difference between "line/character printing" and "Windows printing." I would think there should be available 'somewhere' some programming libraries to allow you to "think in cpi/lpi" in your program which would handle all the conversions to "page printing" for you. I would not be surprised if one or more COBOL compilers included that kind of printing support. -- Michael C. Mattias Tal Systems Inc. Racine WI mmattias(a)talsystems.com |